ping
despite the technical end of the last recession, businesses continue to hire an outsized percentage of temporary workers, who enjoy less job security and receive fewer benefits than permanent employees. Greenspan also admitted that Americans are having difficulty findings new jobs that pay as much as the ones they´ve lost.
You know what really ticks me? This Administration lies and distorts worse than the Democrats! Any one with a single braincell knows how bad things are. According to the IRS and my lying eyes, American wages are DOWN 10%! Who the heck do they think they're kidding?!
THIS will very likely cost Bush the election. The only way he'll ever get in office again will be that Kerry is such an obvious phony! What does it take for Bush to wake up and smell the destruction to Americans all across this nation?
GO WILLIE
Here we see Alan Greenspan admitting to one and all, in broad daylight, that American workers are getting mugged by the free traitors. Make no mistake, there is no difference between sending jobs to low wage venues and importing low wage workers.
The excuse for such actions is lower prices for consumers, but it is a deal with Satan; and the charge extracted is lower wages, worse jobs, and a more difficult job market.
If you want on or off my offshoring ping list, please FReepmail me!
That's a G-D lie. If anything, American workers are overqualified for what's available these days.
This, Mr. Greenspan, is a mouse, we'll call him Mickey - the american job. This, Mr. Greenspan is what you guys term "fluffy the cat" see how soft and furry fluffy looks based on your descriptions. Now we take the pretty white wig off fluffy to reveal Lupo, the mexican hairless with one eye, a limp and frothing mouth - this is globalization. Ope, #$@! looks like we're gonna need another few million Mickeys.
it's now "We Demand High-Paying Jobs!"
Aside from that, one would expect that the pay for jobs would be at the lower end at the beginning of the cycle compared to the end of the cycle. That's nothing unusual.
Before I get flamed for invalid reasons (I'm sure flames will come my way) - let me state that I fully support Bush for re-election. He is the best man for the job - his heart is in the right place - but there are some global and inexorable changes underway that no President can fight against for long.
The American worker is under attack from many fronts.
When I grew up as a State department employee dependent, I lived in several Asian countries. While living there, I watched them develop from manufacturing cheap rubber crappola to bicycles, then to motorcycles - and then watched from back stateside in Silicon Valley, as they continued into autos, then low-grade electronics, to higher-end electronics, to computers and componentry - and now into the higher ends of indigenous research, design and development.
During all that time - the general American philosophy of Comparative Advantage prevailed. We would always hike up the skills ladder to do more advanced stuff, using our superior educational and technological skills base to create higher end jobs, leaving the lower production activities to third-world producers.
Things have changed. Our Asian competitors have caught up to us in their skills base, except for the extreme high-ends of technology, such as aerospace, advanced computer design, nanotechnology and the like.
Manufacturing is going like gangbusters in China. New factories and businesses are locating there in droves. And when all else is equal - price is the deciding factor, and our wages are WAY higher than the average Chinese and Indian wage for low to upper-skill levels.
Outsourcing takes several forms. If a factory making widgets closes down, because it can't compete with much cheaper Chinese widgets, then our widget production and the jobs that go with them have effectively been outsourced. This may be technically inaccurate to economists, but it has the same effect, nonetheless, to the US widget worker.
Then there are companies that don't go out of business - but merely close their US production plants and relocate in China. Same effect to the US worker.
On another front, a company, in services or manufacturing, might stay here and outsource key services and componentry, such as s/w development, customer support, accounting, product subassemblies, which is outsourcing in piecemeal fashion, a good number of jobs heretofore accomplished by US workers.
Then there is the insourcing/outsourcing H1-B jobs, performed by guest workers, who again fill jobs that were performed by indigenous US workers.
And finally, for those attempting to move into local services - such as construction, retail, lawncare, plumbing, electrician-work, there is the illegal South American immigrant. If one thinks that illegals can't get that kind of work - I invite you to look at Mt Kisco NY (one town over from Chappaqua) - and Charlotte, NC.
Mt Kisco is entirely overrun by Guatemalans. They staff virtually ALL the service positions - even though they can barely speak English. The wealthy citizens of Mount Kisco barely notice - as they do not compete for jobs at that level - and their kids are WAY too good for that kind of work.
And in Charlotte, NC, during the 7 years here - I watched as they started from "Hey Pedro! Get that piece-a wood - and get it on up here!" - to filling ALL the construction positions - and even doing plumbing and electrical work - under the licenses of a plumber and electrician making the rounds supervising their work.
When up in New England - I asked an electrician-friend who makes 80K plus a year, how business was, he said "Great! I've got more work than I can deal with. Because young kids today don't wanna work. They don't wanna get into the trades. And Mexicans? Up here? They ain't up around here - too cold."
So what would a President be able to do, under these global economic circumstances. Not much. However, the last two categories of outsourcing (in the broadest sense of the term), needs to be curtailed. We need to shut down H1-B - and close the borders and expel illegal US immigrants - to give US workers a fighting chance to get all those service jobs we're supposed to be flooding into.
OK - rant over. Flame away...
Nothing a little government-funded light-rail program wouldn't fix.
Ole one note Willie, you're a hoot! :)